An Argument for Guns?

For as long as I have been alive, I have been anti-gun across the board. The level of violence in the states is almost unparalleled in the world thanks to the lax laws regarding who is allowed to own or buy a gun. The law cannot touch many gun owners, who go about acquiring arms illegally.

A daily routine of mine is to log on to the St. Louis Post Dispatch's web site, STL Today.com, and peruse the headlines. Almost without exception, there is a story of someone gunned down, a bullet riddled body found or some other terrible gun crime. It's never made much sense to allow this to go on.

Then comes this recent quote from a man in Burma:

"I really want change - but they have guns and we don't, so they'll always win."

--from this article on BBC

I've followed the violence in Burma quite closely over the past few weeks. The once promising peaceful protests of monks and civilians has spiraled into sickening violence on the part of the military and thugs. Among the sad, sad stories that are struggling to make their way past the iron media curtain imposed by the government: protesters mercilessly gunned down in the street; cars pulled over and occupants beaten and incarcerated; praying monks beaten and incarcerated; monasteries being raided and trashed with monks being sent to rural prison camps; civilians' homes invaded at 3am and occupants dragged out and incarcerated; international media being intimidated and physically denied from filing reports; people coming home from work struggling to breathe amidst the tear gas used by the military; sons and daughters abducted by the military unable to be located by parents; the internet being completely shut down in the country to prevent news of the terror being imposed reaching the outside world.

I cannot help but think: what if this country allowed its citizens to own guns? Would these travesties still be happening? Would the violence that would occur as people fought back result in thousands of deaths? Is this the reason our founding fathers in the US ensured citizens should always be allowed to own guns? Is violence the only answer in this situation? Does gun ownership in a country cause more violence or does it protect its citizens from brutal regimes abusing and enslaving the population? Is the NRA on to something???

We may never know.